RP Infrastructure

In January 2020 Sandringham Primary School was significantly damaged due to a fire.  The Victorian Department of Education and Training (DET) sought to rebuild the school to restore capacity to the previous 600-student enrolment as soon as possible, whilst delivering innovative design under the Victorian School Building Authority (VSBA) framework.

Project Overview

The rebuild includes the construction of a new double storey facility enveloping the damaged site, comprising a new Learning Resource Centre (LRC), classrooms, and Resource Intensive Learning (RIL) areas tailored to the school’s and VSBA’s requirements. In addition, the project includes the reconstruction of the staff common room within the remaining shell of the original heritage room, refurbishment of other fire affected areas, landscaping works, and authority upgrades.

Our Role

RP Infrastructure (RPI) has been engaged to lead the delivery of the project in partnership with the VSBA, providing strategic advice concerning overall procurement, the Design and Construct (D&C) approach and incorporating the D&C delivery into the VSBA’s framework.

RPI’s services include:

• Design Development, including guiding the Principal Design Consultant on key deliverables/risks
• Tender Documentation, including the Principal Project Requirements
• Document and Request for Tender management
• Superintendent of the contract between VSBA and the Head Contractor
• Stakeholder management to ensure the successful delivery of the operationally-ready school by 2022.

Key Challenge

The fire damaged heritage school provides a unique latent condition requiring incorporation of modern reconstruction and facilities. In addition, there is a drive to finish the project as soon as practicable for the students and broader community, hence the utilisation of the D&C delivery framework. This approach allows construction to commence while the design is being finalised.  Strong planning, quality management and risk management is key to the successful outcome.